Thunderbird Release Notes

v.3.0.10, released October 27th, 2010
Check out what's new, the known issues, and frequently asked questions about the latest version of Thunderbird. As always, you're encouraged to tell us what you think either using this feedback form or by filing a bug in Bugzilla.

New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools

New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools

Search results now include advanced filtering tools. You have the option to filter your results by sender, tag, attachments, people, folder, and mailing list. You can also filter your email using the timeline tool.

New Global Search Field with Autocomplete

When typing in the Global Search field, Thunderbird autocompletes against your address book. You have the option of searching everywhere or filtering against different parts of the email such as by subject or by sender.

User Experience Improvements

New Mail Account Setup Wizard

The new Mail Account Setup Wizard matches against a database of email settings from popular mail providers so that you will only need to provide your name, email, and password to set up new mail accounts.

Redesigned Mail Toolbar

The Mail Toolbar is redesigned to include the new Global Search bar. Buttons such as reply, forward, delete, junk are part of each email message. You can add those buttons back to the main toolbar by customizing the toolbar.

Tabbed Email
Messages

Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.

Smart Folders

The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes, like Inbox, from multiple accounts. Smart Folders is now on by default.

New Message Summary
View

Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.

Column Headings

The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.

Message Archive

You can now file messages from your Inbox or other folders into the new Archive folder system.

Activity Manager

The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place.

New Add-ons Manager

The new Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to find, download, and install Thunderbird Add-ons which includes Extensions, Themes, and Plugins.

Improved Address Book

If someone is in your address book, it is indicated by a new star icon which you can click to edit contact details inline. If they are not in your address book, you can add them with one click of the icon. A new birthday field allows you to keep track of your friends' birthdays. You can also add a photo for contacts in your address book.

Improved Gmail Integration

Better recognition and integration of Gmail's special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.

For Windows Vista users, Thunderbird 3 is now integrated with Vista search results. On first start, Thunderbird will prompt
to install its indexing system into Windows Vista and you can choose to see Thunderbird email and news
messages in Windows search results.

For Mac users, Thunderbird 3 is now integrated with Spotlight, can import from Mail.app,
read your OS X address book, and use Growl for new mail alerts.

Performance Improvements

IMAP Folder Synchronization

Thunderbird will download IMAP messages by default in the background to allow for faster message loading and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis via Folder properties, or for all folders in an account via Account Settings / 'Synchronize & Storage'.

Downloading Thunderbird 3

For builds for other systems and languages not provided by Mozilla.org,
see the Contributed Builds section at the end of this document.

Installing Thunderbird 3

Please note that installing Thunderbird 3 may overwrite your
existing installation of Thunderbird on Linux. Windows and Mac OS X will install to different locations, however
it is recommended that you check the messages during installation. For all systems, you won't lose
any of your messages or address books, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might
not work until updates for them are made available.

Users are highly encouraged to install Thunderbird 3 in another folder (on Windows, this is done using Custom Install) and backup their profiles before testing Thunderbird 3.

Uninstalling Thunderbird 3

You can remove Thunderbird 3 through the Control Panel in the Start Menu on Windows, by removing the Thunderbird application on
OS X, or by removing the thunderbird folder on Linux.

Removing Thunderbird 3 won't remove your emails or newsgroup messages. This data is stored in your profile
folder, which is located in one of the following locations depending on
your operating system:

Windows Vista, Windows 7

Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003

Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Thunderbird

Mac OS X

~/Library/Thunderbird

Linux and Unix systems

~/.thunderbird

Any version of Thunderbird that you install after removing Thunderbird 3 will
continue to use the data from this profile folder.

Extensions and Themes

Extensions installed under previous versions of Thunderbird may be incompatible and/or require
updates to work with Thunderbird 3. Please report any issues to the
maintainer of the extension.

When you install Thunderbird 3 all of your Extensions and Themes will be
disabled until Thunderbird 3 determines that either a) they are compatible
with Thunderbird 3 or b) there are newer versions available that
are compatible.

Known Issues

This list covers some of the known problems with Thunderbird 3. Please read
this before reporting any new bugs.

All Systems

If you use or had previously used the master password feature, you may be prompted to enter your master password when you first start up Thunderbird. (Bug 338549)

Your passwords are stored in a new location. If you go back to using a previous version of Thunderbird, or switch back and forth between Thunderbird 3 and an older version, your password lists do not get updated.

Searching your emails is case sensitive for languages other than English. (Bug 525537)

If using SSL or TLS, and the certificate that
comes from the server is self-signed, expired, or has a domain that
does not match the server domain, a dialog will be shown asking if
Thunderbird should permanently make an exception for the cert.
This should only be done if the error is understood.

The extended columns in the folder pane were
removed in Thunderbird 3 Beta 1. There is an add-on that restores this functionality.

Some Thunderbird 2 users upgrading to Thunderbird 3 may not be able to login to their smtp server because the secure authentication setting maybe turned on but not supported by the smtp server. Check your smtp server settings in Tools -> Account Settings -> Outgoing Server, and edit the smtp server with the issue. If use 'secure authentication' is checked, uncheck it and try again. (Bug 522633)

Thunderbird requires that extensions either come from a secure server using the HTTPS protocol or are digitally signed, or they will fail to install.

If you are unable to view content for your RSS feeds in the Wide View Layout, you may need to disable the Lightning Calendar add-on if you have it installed or switch to Classic View and restart Thunderbird. (Bug 531397)

Some emails sent in Plain Text may move the message and some of the buttons out of the message pane. Open the message in a New Tab, resize the window, or change your layout to Classic View or Wide View to view the message. (Bug 530047)

When working Offline, if you compose an email and select 'Send Later', your message may not be sent if you reconnect automatically to the Internet. You will need need to manually resend the email from your Outbox. (Bug 531179)

In some cases, using 'Save As Template' from the File menu may not work. You can still Save As Template from the email Compose window or drag the message into the Template folder. (Bug 532050)

Microsoft Windows

The keyboard shortcut for 'Mark All Read' has changed from Ctrl+Shift+C to Shift+C.

If you are using the Kaspersky Anti-Spam Extension from Kaspersky Internet Suite 2010, it is disabled in Thunderbird 3.0.1 and later. This is fixed in Kaspersky Internet Suite 2011 (Bug 533692)

Troubleshooting

Poorly designed or incompatible extensions can cause problems with your email client, including make it crash, slow down message display, etc. If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of the email client no longer working, the email client not starting, windows with strange or distorted appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension or Theme trouble.
Restart the email client in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using the "Safe Mode" shortcut created in your
Start menu or by running thunderbird.exe -safe-mode. On Linux,
start with ./thunderbird -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:

When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start normally.

If you encounter strange problems relating to email, feeds or newsgroup messages, it is recommended that you try
creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before filing
bugs. Create a new profile by running Thunderbird with the -P command line
argument, choose the "Manage Profiles" button and then choose "Create
Profile...". Migrate your settings files (Emails, feeds, etc) over
one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you do
find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and attach
the file, being sure to remove any private information as necessary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do to help?

We need help from developers and the testing community to provide as much
feedback as possible to make Thunderbird even better. General feedback
can be provided via the feedback form.
Please read these notes and
the bug filing instructions before reporting any bugs to Bugzilla.

Contributed Builds

These are unofficial builds and may be configured differently than the official Mozilla builds. They mas also be optimized and/or tested for specific platforms. You can browse through the available contributed builds on the FTP site.